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KSU Summer Horn Festival Faculty

Our faculty list is still being finalized, but the below artists have committed to
the 2019 festival! Check back soon for exciting additions to this list!

KSU Summer Horn Festival Faculty

Frøydis Ree Wekre

Horn soloist and teacher Frøydis Ree Wekre from Oslo, Norway, was studying piano and
violin before turning to horn at the age of 17. Outside of Oslo, her studies have
taken place in Sweden, Russia and USA.

After one year in the Norwegian Opera she joined the Oslo Philharmonic orchestra as
co-principal, a position she left in 1991. She has also been very active as a soloist
and chamber musician, mostly in Europe and North America.

As a teacher Ms. Wekre was Professor of Horn and Chamber Music at the Norwegian Academy
of Music until 2011. Nowadays she is travelling worldwide giving master classes. Currently
she is also an international guest horn teacher at the RNCM in Manchester, England.

Her book, “Thoughts on Playing the Horn well” has been translated into several languages.
More than 40 compositions are written for her, some of which have been recorded on
the labels of SIMAX, CRYSTAL and 2L.no

Frøydis Ree Wekre is an Honorary Member of the International Horn Society since 1994,
and she has been associated with the Sarasota Music Festival, USA, Banff Festival
of the Arts and Domaine Forget, Canada.

Chelsea McFarland

Chelsea McFarland is the third horn of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Ms. McFarland
grew up in Decatur, Georgia, and went on to receive her bachelor's degree from the
Curtis Institute of Music where she studied with Jennifer Montone and Jeffrey Lang.

Prior to the Atlanta Symphony, Ms. McFarland was the acting principal of Symphony
in C. She has been a fellow at the Music Academy of the West, as well as a member
of the National Repertory Orchestra. She has also appeared with the New World Symphony.

In addition to performing, Ms. McFarland is dedicated to bringing music to young audiences.
She worked as a volunteer music teacher in the Philadelphia public school systems,
and continues to advocate for underserved communities.

John Gough

The owner and Chief Craftsman of Elemental Brass (Brass Repair and handmade Custom
Horns) in Nashville Tennessee; John Gough has performed as a professional horn player
in the U.S. and abroad. Recently serving as the Principal Horn of the Wuhan Philharmonic
Orchestra in China, he has also performed with groups in Germany and Beijing (pursuing
recording opportunities there as a freelancer). In the states he maintains an active
life as a freelancer and has worked with ensembles such as the Dallas Winds, Fort
Worth Symphony, Nashville Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Airforce Academy Band, Knoxville
Symphony and the Hunstville and Chattanooga symphonies as well as many other groups.

As a horn maker and repairman, John has formal training through the CIOMIT school
in Castle Rock Colorado. He also worked with the Houghton Custom Horns repair shop
doing high level work and extensive repairs (such as bell conversions, complete rebuilds,
and even returning horns to original condition after catastrophic bell damage on a
regular basis) before moving to Nashville to open Elemental Brass. Elemental Brass
does everything from handmade leadpipes, bell conversions, full horn rebuilds and
customizations to making horns of John's own design (the EB1 and EB2). His custom
horns and handmade instruments can be found in orchestras and on soundtracks across
the U.S.A. John has two dogs and enjoys cooking, disc golf as well as aquascaping,
as hobbies when he's away from the horn!

Ion Balu

Ion Balu, M.M., a native of Romania, received his Masters Degree in Musical Styles
and Interpretation from G. Dima Music Academy, Cluj-Napoca, in 1997. As a student,
Mr. Balu played with the Romanian National Opera in Cluj-Napoca for nine years and
concertized extensively throughout Europe. He won all but one of the national Horn
competitions in which he participated from 1986 to 1989. As a sixth grader, he was
the youngest horn player in Romanian history to be featured as a soloist with an orchestra.
While a student at the Music Academy, he was a featured soloist with the Romanian
National Opera in 1994 & 1996. While playing in RNO, Mr. Balu was actively invited
to play with various orchestras around the country. In 1999, Mr. Balu came to the
USA as a graduate student. While working on his second Masters degree in Horn Performance
at Arkansas State University, he was a featured soloist with the NE Arkansas Symphony.
He played with the Symphonies of Arkansas, Baton Rouge, Tupelo, Greenville, and NE
Arkansas, etc. In 2002, he won a position with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, and
he has been part of the MSO until 11/11/11, when he resigned his position to dedicate
himself exclusively to his business.

Jason Eklund

Jason Eklund a native of Tucson, Arizona, Jason began his professional performing
career at age 18 as substitute horn for the Tucson Symphony Orchestra.

In 1998, he graduated summa cum laude from the University of New Mexico with a Bachelor
of Music in Horn Performance. While at the University of New Mexico he served as Principal
Horn of the Santa Fe Symphony and substitute for the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra.
In 2000, he earned a Master of Music in Performance from the Meadows School of the
Arts at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX.

While in Texas, Jason was second horn for the Plano Symphony Orchestra and third horn
for the Irving and Waco Symphony Orchestras. He was also a member of Texas Winds Musical
Outreach, and served as substitute and extra horn for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.
In addition, Jason taught horn students in 5th - 12th grades in the Richardson and
DeSoto school districts.

Jason was featured has been a featured soloist with the Tucson Philharmonic Youth
Orchestra, the University of New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, and the Catalina Chamber
Orchestra. He has attended many summer music festivals including Aspen, Interlochen
Arts Camp, Keystone Brass Institute, Kent/Blossom, and Sarasota. His teachers have
included Jacqueline Sellers, Stanislav Suchanek, Patrick Hughes, and Gregory Hustis.

Currently, Jason is an Artist-in-Residence at Kennesaw State University and an Instructor
of Music Theory at Emory University. He is principal horn of the Macon Symphony Orchestra,
third horn of the Georgia Symphony Orchestra, fourth horn of the Columbus Symphony
Orchestra and a substitute with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

Richard Williams

Richard Williams is a member of the Atlanta Ballet Orchestra, Artist-in-Residence
for horn at Kennesaw State University, host of the Kennesaw State University Summer
Horn Festival, and horn instructor at the prestigious Westminster Schools of Atlanta. He
serves as a substitute musician for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Atlanta Opera
Orchestra.

Richard has participated in the New Hampshire Music Festival and several recording
sessions for video games as well as a major motion picture soundtrack. He also served
as the long-term substitute principal horn of Symphony Orchestra Augusta for their
2014-2015 season. Richard frequently plays with the Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra
and was fourth horn of the LaGrange Symphony Orchestra for seven seasons. For five
years, he served as an adjunct faculty member at Columbus State University’s Schwob
School of Music. As a passionate teacher, Richard maintains an active private studio
with students who participate in regular solo recitals, the Atlanta Symphony Youth
Orchestra, Atlanta Youth Wind Symphony, Brevard Music Institute, Sewanee Summer Music
Festival, Interlochen Arts Camp, Georgia Governors Honors Program, and Georgia district
and all-state bands.

KSU Summer Horn Festival Accompanists

Arie Motschman

Arie Motschman holds degrees in Organ Performance from Salem College (BM) in Winston-Salem,
NC and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (MM). She was awarded a Fulbright Grant
for post-graduate study at the Folkwang Musik Hochschule in Essen, Germany. Arie
has been an opera coach and accompanist for several KSU opera productions and harpsichordist
for numerous concerts and recitals. She also collaborates with KSU music students
for solo and studio recitals, competitions, and auditions. A resident of Marietta,
Arie serves as Music Director/ Pianist for numerous school and civic musical theatre
and chorus projects. She is Organist at Midway Presbyterian Church in Powder Springs,
GA.

Judy Cole

Judy Cole is considered by local area colleagues to be one of the most versatile pianists
in the Atlanta commercial music scene. She has performed for corporate presidents,
university presidents, and even a former President of the United States, in venues
ranging from concert halls to nightclubs and recording studios, as a soloist and as
a collaborative pianist.

When Professor Cole first arrived at Kennesaw State University, she taught classes
in music theory and history, coached Opera and Musical Theatre, and accompanied student
and faculty recitals. From 2008 to 2016 she played, coached and musically directed
all the Musical Theatre productions for the Theatre and Performance Studies division
of COTA in addition to her duties for the School of Music. Since fall 2016, she has
been the Coordinator of Collaborative Piano for the School of Music, and now teaches
Accompanying, private studio lessons, Advanced Class Piano, and coaches/plays for
the Opera Theatre classes. Judy also enjoys a demanding schedule of recital performances
with faculty and students. In past years, Judy has been a featured soloist with the
Georgia Youth Symphony Orchestra and the KSU Wind Ensemble.

Mrs. Cole has worked professionally and made a successful career over the last 35
years as a free-lance pianist and commercial musician playing in a variety of settings.
To quote J. Lynn Thompson, founding Artistic Director of the Atlanta Lyric Opera,
"Judy Cole is one of those rare artists who can move effortlessly between styles ranging
from opera to Broadway, jazz to rock and roll. She is a conductor's and singer's dream
of a pianist." Mrs. Cole has been featured on numerous recordings both as an accompanist
and as a soloist, including her own CD "By Request," and has several solo recordings
in process at this time. As often as scheduling allows, she plays in the pit orchestra
for Broadway touring shows playing at the Fox Theatre and major events at the Cobb
Energy Performing Arts Center. She has also been selected by the Educational Testing
Service to serve as an Aural Skills Reader for the national Advanced Placement Music
Theory exams for several years.

She earned her Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance from the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill, studying with Marvin Blickenstaff. After taking a year
off from school, during which she toured the United States playing in a show band,
she was invited to attend the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music,
where she earned her Master of Music degree in Accompanying, with a concentration
in Musical Theatre and Chamber Music. Her teachers included Olga Radosavlovich at
the Cleveland Institute of Music, and Dr. Robert Evans, Babbette Effron and Dr. Kelly
Hale at CCM.

In addition to local performances, Mrs. Cole travels routinely to accompany classical,
instrumental, vocal, and religious Jewish music concerts throughout the US where she
is known for her ability to arrive, rehearse and perform demanding concert material
all within a span of several hours. She has collaborated with many of the top Cantors
and musicians in the Jewish music world, including Hazzan Naftali Herstik in Jerusalem,
Cantor Asher Hainovitz, Simon Sargon, Bonia Shur, Michael Isaacson, and Debbie Friedman.
Judy is a member of the Guild of Temple Musicians (the national organization of Jewish
musicians and composers), the American Federation of Musicians, and the Musical Theatre
Educators Alliance. She is the staff accompanist at The Temple in Atlanta and is still
an active commercial musician, playing both as a soloist and as a keyboardist/vocalist
in her band.

Judy is a mom to daughters Katy and Rebekah, their husbands Mike and Richard, an ecstatic
grandmother to Charlotte and Jack, and is happily married to Cantor Herb Cole.